An Early Release Of MeeGo 1.1 Handset Project

While Oracle may not be capable of releasing an OpenSolaris update (or even communicating their intentions), the Intel-Nokia team working on the MeeGo operating system that marries Moblin and Maemo is capable of getting work done. Today they have released their first spin of MeeGo Handset Project, which is the MeeGo variant designed for handsets like the Nokia N900.

MeeGo 1.0 was released one month ago and it targeted netbook computers and other Atom-based computers like nettops while they promised their next release, MeeGo 1.1, would introduce the support for the handset-type devices. MeeGo 1.1 isn't due out until October, but today they have released their first "Day 1" image of the MeeGo Handset Project along with screenshots and other details on this new variant.

MeeGo Handset Project is based upon the same MeeGo Core OS found within the netbook spins, but with a user-experience catered towards the smaller screens and mobile phones. Not only are the developer preview releases available, but the handset source code is also now available in Git. Last but not least, today MeeGo has also introduced the MeeGo Build Infrastructure, which is based upon the openSUSE Build Service.

Today's release for the Handset Project includes the MeeGo APIs that take advantage of Qt and the MeeGo Touch UI Framework, the handset reference user-interface with various status widgets (clock, 3G connectivity, battery charge, etc) and different screens, the Handset Project's application launcher, a dialer and SMS application, and hardware support for Intel Atom-based handsets using the Moorestown architecture and on the Nokia side is support for their newest N900 ARM-based device.

Today's Handset Project announcement was made on the MeeGo blog. For those not able to try out the developer build, there are MeeGo Handset screenshots of their reference implementation. There are also the release notes for the MeeGo 1.1 Handset Developer Preview with greater details on this Linux-based mobile operating system.

Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the web-site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience and being the largest web-site devoted to Linux hardware reviews, particularly for products relevant to Linux gamers and enthusiasts but also commonly reviewing servers/workstations and embedded Linux devices. Michael has written more than 10,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics hardware drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated testing software. He can be followed via Twitter and Google+ or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.